Crazy Love (mxm)

Chapter Seven

Carter's POV

"I just don't know how to feel." I rubbed my eyes until they were stinging and met her gaze. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

My mom looked over her shoulder, but continued to help Ronan mix the brownie batter. "It sounds like you like him, Carter. What's wrong with that?"

"I barely know him!" I put my head in my hands and groaned.

"You can learn a lot from a man in a small amount of time if you're smart about it," my dad said. He paused to grease up a pan and hand it to mom. Then he raised eyebrow at me. "What have you learned about James, son?"

What did I know about James? I knew that he had a little brother, probably didn't have a job, had done cocaine, was definitely an alcoholic, and partook in a lot of rated R stories with my friend's older brother, Brian.

So basically, he was the worst.

But I also knew, despite all that, he was absolutely willing to throw down with a man twice his size to prevent another guy from being sexually assaulted. And I knew from the retelling of his rated R stories that he was charismatic and knew how to make people laugh. ...And the cocaine wasn't a habit.

And the way he was with Ronan? The two of them together were too adorable.

"He's interesting. I think he's a good guy at heart, but not by societal standards," I grumbled.

Ronan held his hand to me, smeared in batter. "Some?"

"No thanks, peanut."

My dad, who was a gruff war veteran with a staunch code of ethics, propped his hands on his hips. "Now what does that mean?"

I nibbled on my bottom lip, troubled to find that I wanted to give the best version of James to my parents. But why the hell did I want them to like him?

Fuck that.

"He's done cocaine, for one." I decided to rip the bandage off. "He's an alcoholic. He smokes. He's a jerk. ... no, that's not fair. He really isn't a jerk. But I wish he was, so I could get him out of my head."

Mom smirked. "Sounds like you have it bad."

"Marissa?!" my dad sputtered. "The man is a cocaine addict! Carter are you insane? He is clearly not a man that you want to have around your son."

"Not an addict, per se," I revised. "He's just done it a couple times."

Right.

Because only doing cocaine a couple of times was exactly the way to impress my parents.

"Gamma! Some?" Ronan asked my mom. She loved him enough to scoop her finger into the squeezed-up batter and eat it. Ronan was satisfied.

She turned back to me. "Well, does he do cocaine now?"

I wanted to lie. "Honestly, I kind of think he does cocaine when his friends are doing cocaine. But can we stop talking about the cocaine thing? Let's start talking about ways for me to get rid of my weird feelings."

"I think it's sweet."

"Marissa!" my dad gasped.

I glanced at my phone while they were bickering and groaned. It was another text from James. He always texting me stuff that was kind of sweet, and then finished off the text with a bunch of eggplant emoji's.

He was such a child.

James: you, me, your place tonight? *eggplant* *eggplant* *eggplant*